7 Best Apps of 2019 So Far (Part II)
New apps for independent movie watching, cheap web hosting and transparent music sampling complete our 7 Best Apps of 2019 (So Far).
Last week four Metier Digital team members introduced their favourite apps of 2019, including a more user-friendly version of Skype (appear.in) and a digital wellbeing app, Daylio, that helps you track your mood and work out what activities make you happy and which ones bum you out.
Today, the other half of Metier get their say on the best apps of 2019 (so far).
Minute app — Craig Ryder, Head of Communications
My recommendation has to be the “cinema in your pocket”, Minute app. It’s full of high-quality, short indie films, and has become my go-to for the evening commute.
There’s no Hollywood-fluff here. It’s all Black Mirror-esque sci-fi-horrors. Or meaningful documentaries such Marie’s Dictionary: the 9-minute story of the last speaker of the Native American Wukchumni language and the dictionary she single-handily created to keep her language alive.
Minute app is only at MVP stage but it is already destined for greatness.
Netlify — Seb Ringrose, Software Developer
I’ll let Seb explain this one:
“At Metier, we use Netlify for a lot of our web hosting and are yet to pay a penny!”
“Basically, like any hosting provider, Netlify allows you to host your website on their servers, but they only host static websites.”
“A static website handles all of its operations (think page navigation, math functions and data visualisation) in the browser, instead of relying on a server to perform those functions for it.”
“This means that Netlify’s servers don’t do any heavy lifting — and are therefore very cheap to use and fast — because they simply send a bunch of HTML, CSS and Javascript to users and then move on with their lives...”
“To utilise these efficient servers as a dev you will need to design and build your websites to work statically. But don’t fret, popular Javascript-based web technologies such as React, Angular, Vue.js all generate static websites that are compatible with Netlify out-of-the-box…”
“Meaning, you don’t need to do anything different to make use of Netlify’s cheap hosting!”
Reach out to Seb if you need any more info on this.
Tracklib — Joshua McGovern, Product Manager
Tracklib is the world’s first record store purely for song-sampling.
That’s big news if you work — or play — in sound production. Ordinarily, sampling tracks is so expensive that 99% of producers are outpriced from accessing the tunes they want. But with Tracklib, a fair pricing structure favours both the sampler and the sampled.
Aside from making his own music, Joshua edits the Metier Digital podcast ‘Everyday Startups’.
He says: “I’m loving being able to sample tracks, knowing the upfront cost and the amount I’ll have to pay down the line on royalties.
Joshua adds, “Tracklib has been endorsed big-time by the hip hop community. Keith Flint too.”
RIP Keith.
7 Of The Best?
Independent movies, web hosting and music sampling complete Metier Digital’s “7 Best Apps of 2019 (So Far)”.
We’d love to hear what you think of these apps if you choose to download them. And we’re always keen to hear your recommendations on new apps, especially ones that solve real-world problems.
We’ll be back with another essential list soon.
Craig is a writer for Metier Digital, a London-based company that helps businesses build cost-effective apps.
